Method for cleaning phonograph-records



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ea ner METHOD FOR CLEANENG EHGNOGRAPH-RECORDS N0 Drawing.

To all whomz't may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD T. I'IAILS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city and county of Montgomery, State of Alabama, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods for Cleaning Phonograph-Records, of which this is a specification.

The invention relates to the cleaning or surface renovation of soft records such as are used nowadays in the dictating phono graphs in commercialuse. The object of the invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive, efficient and readily employed method and means essential thereto, for rapidly renewing the surface of a used record so'that the dictation thereonor the record trace thereof-may be quickly removed and the record suitably smoothed or re-surfaced so that another trace may be impressed upon it.

The usual method and means employed for this purposethe shaving machine, ef fects a very satisfactory re-surfacing, but the object of this invention is to eliminate the necessity for such a machine and permit the operator to immediately wipe off the previous record and prepare the record for further use without employing any machinery whatever.

I have found that by wiping a record with a rag moistened with a hydrocarbon solvent such as gasolene, kerosene oil, or benzin, as examples, the original trace can be obliterated so that the record will not now talk; but this treatment, alone, leaves the surface so rough that a very disagree able sound is produced from the inequalities of surface so much so that it is unpleasant for the ear to listen to a trace taken from a record cleaned in this way and then traced anew. If, however, after the record has been first cleaned with the hydrocarbon solvent, say wiped with a cloth or rag wet with kerosene, it is then further treated by being wiped with a smooth rag moistened with the mixture which is the means contemplated in this invention, the record surface is at once made so smooth and free from rough spots that it is quite as satisfactory as the best shaved record or as an unused record, fresh from the factory. I find that the mixture which must be used on the record, first roughly treated with hydrocar- Specification of Letters Patent. 7 Pa gqen'tad lllfiay 17, 123921.

Application filed February 4, 1920. Serial No. 356,319.

hon solvent such as kerosene oil, and which Ihave very successfully employed in practwo, is "one of alcohol, ether, and vinegar,

the proportions being variable, though a mixture of substantially equal parts of the three answers very well indeed. The alcohol maybe methylated spirits and preferably should be so, as economy is an object and the wood alcohol answers perfectly. This mixture, wiped on the roughly smoothed record, as would be expected, almost immediately evaporates and leaves the record surface practically free from odor, and with a pleasant surface. No particular care is necessary in employing my method; the used record is wiped with a soft rag wet with kerosene; the mechanical friction and the kerosene breaking down the ridges and furrows into which the tracing point has cut the surface; then, or within a few seconds.or minutes-the mixture mentioned is applied with another rag orcloth or with the fingers. This leaves the record surface very smooth and quite ready for a new trace to be inscribed. I do not pretenrhof course, that this method produces a perfectly cylindrical new surface, but this is not necessary,

as it is enough that the new surface is so smooth that when used again nothing will affect the reproducing stylus except the dictation trace and that external vibrations due to roughness of the record surface are suitably eliminated. The method does this much very satisfactorily indeed: It produces a new surface which can be dictated against with the certainty that in listening to the trace external noises will be quite as slight as if the record 'had'been carefully shaved on the usual screw-fed shaving ma chineequivalent, as is well known, to a screw cutting lathe. The use ofmy method, however, not only dispenses with the need of such a machine but the whole process of the two steps or stages-the rough cleaning by wiping with a kerosene-wet rag, and the wiping the record with a mixture of alco- .hol, ether and vinegar.

2. The method described, consisting in smoothing records roughly surfaced by previous wiping with a solvent of the record material by wiping such records with a mixture-o1": an acid, ether, and alcohol, substantially as set forth.

3. The method set forth, consisting inwiping a used phonograph record with a hydrocarbon solvent such as kerosene, until the record trace is substantially obliterated; and then wiping the record so treated with a mixture of wood alcohol, ether and vinegar.

Vitness my hand this Feb. 2, 1920.

EDWARD T. HAILS.

lVitnesses R. E. SEIBELs, W. J. OSBORNE. 

